Audio Video News

Yesterday's annual Blu-Con 2.0 conference in Los Angeles delivered a progress update on Blu-ray Disc and many of the advanced technologies associated with it. The conference took place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, and was organized by the Digital Entertainment Group, a trade association whose members include movie studios and consumer electronics manufacturers.

Some of the sessions were enlightening, although a few focused rather heavily on marketing data. Rather than give a blow-by-blow of each session, I'll just cite the most interesting comments.

Mike Vitelli, Executive Vice President, Customer Operations Group, Best Buy, on consumer acceptance of Blu-ray:
"In its initial five-year period, Blu-ray has grown at a faster pace than DVD or VHS did. It's growing faster than a lot of these 'hot' products we hear about, like e-books, netbooks, and flat-panel TVs." However, Vitelli pointed out that Best Buy has found consumers buying Blu-ray discs weigh the format's better picture quality against the fact that Blu-ray is not yet a truly portable format-i.e., you can't play it in the car or in most laptops as you can with DVD.

Craig Kornblau, President, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, second from right in first photo, on the still-high pricing of Blu-ray software:
"I just saw a $99 Blu-ray player advertised in a Best Buy circular. If they're running $99 now, what's going to happen on Black Friday? If you look at what's happening with the players, I think you'll see the software start to go with a more mass-market approach to pricing."

Mike Dunn, President, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, second from left in first photo, on the possibilities that cloud computing brings to entertainment distribution:
"With downloading, the consumer is worried that he'll lose all the content he paid for if his hard drive crashes. We need a 'digital shelf' where consumers can store all their entertainment and access it wherever they want." Other panelists sometimes referred to this concept as a "digital locker."

Martin Scorsese, famous director, who appeared live from New York City through a videoconferencing feed, when asked to cite his favorite movie to watch on Blu-ray:
"The Searchers. When you put it on just to check it out you can't take it off."

Tom Adams, President, Adams Media Research, second from right in second photo, on the perception some people have that Blu-ray is just an interim step between DVD and Internet streaming/downloads:
"There's no evidence that streaming is going to take over. Blu-ray is the technology that people will be watching movies on for the forseeable future … Blu-ray will be adopted as a universal player of choice. There's no reason it won't. And software sales will get to 100 percent Blu-ray at some point."

Gordon Ho, Executive Vice President, Brand & Product Management, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, on the future of BD-Live (which many pundits and consumers have so far found disappointing):
"With an increase in the number of machines that support BD-Live, and the software that uses it, I think we'll see tremendous uptake." As an example of compelling BD-Live content (which studios have so far mostly failed to deliver), Ho cited a feature from a recent Hannah Montana disc that allows the consumer to stream Radio Disney through the Blu-ray player. He also showed a clip promoting Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer, Netflix, second from left in third photo, on the future of physical media versus digital streaming and downloads:
"We expect to be shipping discs until 2030. I know I will never stop buying discs-although I don't know if my kids will ever start buying discs."

Chris Fawcett, Vice President, Home Audio & Video, Sony Electronics (second from right in third photo), on the same topic:
"It's never been Internet or Blu-ray, it's Internet and Blu-ray. Twenty-five years after the launch of VHS, one of the biggest products of the last year for us has been a DVD/VHS combo machine."

Andy Parsons, Senior Vice President, Advanced Product Development, Pioneer Electronics, third from right in fourth photo, on the immediate future of 3-D on Blu-ray:
"We [the Blu-ray Disc Association] are still on target for delivery of a 3-D specification by the end of the year. Most likely we'll see hardware announcements at CES in January. But it will take time to develop the players and TVs."

Eisuke Tsuyuzaki, Chief Technology Officer, Panasonic North America, far left in fourth photo, on his company's plans for 3-D:
"I have every expectation that we will be going out in a very big way in 2010. We're not coming out with a whimper. We see this as a revolution, not just a feature. With that in mind, it makes sense to have a mass-market item, not something that's just for the exotic few. It [3-D] is here to stay. Get over it."

Don Eklund, Executive Vice President, Advanced Technologies, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, second from right in fourth photo, on the quality we can expect from 3-D on Blu-ray:
"At least we will get the delivery system right. It'll be up to the studios to deliver compelling content."

-Brent Butterworth